What does "Viva La Raza" mean

[951-Riverside]

I've seen watching the protests and I've heard alot of people say this but I don't understand what it means.

[Yollam]

1. "Long Live the Race"

if I understand it correctly. "The Race" being Spanish-Indian Mextizo. Chicano, whatever - related to the notion of "Aztlan" - idea of a Mextizo homeland made up mostly of the SW US.

[Marie26]

22. "La Raza" here just means Hispanic people.

Usually, referring to mestizos, as opposed to the Spanish upper class. It's got nothing to do w/Aztlan. People in Mexico will use that expression as well.

[SledDriver]

2. La Raza = "The Races"

I think it's specific to the Latin community.

[RagingInMiami]

6. Mexican community

Other Latin groups don't use that word to describe themselves

[ugarte]

17. It's true, it's more a Chicano thing than a Mexican thing

In Mexico you don't really hear it. It is specifically a Chicano chant of empowerment in reaction to decades of discrimination in the Southwest.

[Maestro]

3. Literally it means

Long live the race, but raza has different connotations in Spanish, one of which being something akin to family. So when you hear this do not think that these people are throwing out the "race" card. La raza refers to kinships, family and yes, race. It can also be translated in this expression as "people" or "citizenry." La raza unida nunca sera vencida = The people together will never be defeated; same word with the meaning of people. Hope this helps.

[RagingInMiami]

4. Long live the (Mexican) race

[Yollam]

7. Not all Mexicans

I believe it excludes the ruling white, European oligarchy and refers only to the mextizo people.

[RagingInMiami]

13. You're right

[ourbluenation]

5. Isn't La Raza the group that wants Calif to belong to Mexico again?

[Scurrilous]

9. delete.

[ourbluenation]

21. Gotcha - my bad. Got it mixed up. eom

[ugarte]

24. You may be thinking of La Raza Unida, a small political party

that started in Texas back in the 1960s and is pretty much out of business, or perhaps MECHhA, a Chicano student organization on many university campuses, although I'm not sure they actually advocate Aztlan as an independent country. It's more a symbolic thing, i.e., political power.

[Bridget Burke]

26. Heh--the deleted message referred to "La Migra"....

Guess again! Clue: This car decal is popular here in Houston.

Apparently you've been hanging out at sites like this one: www.americanpatrol.com/index.html

Don't believe everything you see.

[Bridget Burke]

19. No.

History--it's wonderful!

[ugarte]

8. First off, it's not a racial thing, because Latinos come in all colors

It's more a cry of political consciousness and societal empowermment, like "Black Power" back in the 1960s.

[Yollam]

It is racial.

It excludes the ruling white oligarchy of Mexico and refers the to Native-European mixed ancestry Mexican majority.


If I understand it right.

[ugarte]

14. You don't understand it right

It's cultural, not racial. There are light-skinned Chicanos and brown-skinned Chicanos. As aLatino myself, I can tell you skin color has nothing to do with it. I would direct you to a famous book by Jose Vasconcelos called "La Raza Cosmica" to give you some idea.

[Yollam]

16. Fair enough.

I'm not saying it's racial in a negative way.

Just seems to me that most of Mexico's white Spanish ruling oligarchy would NOT sympathize with the values and ideals of "La Raza"

But you're right that it's not like an exclusive club based on color.

[Ignacio Upton]

10. "Long live the race!"

They're referring to the Mestizo race, a mix of people who are both Native American and European descendant. They might be part of the group La Raza, which advocates returning the southwest to Mexico. As far as I'm concerned, any group that accuses racism, while simultaneously chanting "long live the race" is acting on a double standard. There is another group like this called Aztlan, which claims that the southwest is the rightful and ancestral home of the Aztecs, and wants to make it part of Mexico again or its own country. They're also hypocritical, because they support the Palestinians in their problems with Israel, while at the same time, their historical justification for "taking back" the southwest is akin to Israel's arguement. The Zionist groups in the first half of the 20th Century argued that the land known as Palestine was once their's and that they should rightfully re-occupy it, just like "Aztlan" once belonged to the Aztecs, but they were forced out thousands of years ago, until they settled in central Mexico. Both the Chicano and Zionist nationalists have in common that they were right that they have been persecuted in the past (the Chicanos by the mostly white Mexican upper-class and the United States, and the Zionists by the Romans who expelled them and by Christian Europe and parts of the Muslim world.)Beyond persecution and desire to reacquire ancestral territory, they have nothing similar.

[Marie26]

27. Hi, La Raza does not advocate

returning the Southwest to Mexico. This has been repeated ad nauseam here, w/o any basis. "La Raza" is a civil rights organization that works to prevent discrimination & further the rights of Hispanics in the US. (Sort of like the NAACP). This is also distinguished from the phrase, "la raza", which simply refers to Latin Americans in general. Aztlan is some bizarre fringe newsletter, so I'm not sure how you can assume they can speak for all Chicanos (except that it justifies your fears?). However, based on their lame website w/assorted anti-Semitic & conspiracy theories, it looks like most fringe supremacist websites. It also appears to consist of 5 people. Aztlan is not at all a mainstream organization. It's like assuming Fred Phelps & his fringe church somehow speak for the American people. And you know what - even on that fringe website, I couldn't find anything advocating returning the Southwest to Mexico. Maybe you can help me out w/that one. Or were you just quoting what someone else said?

Compare -
Official La Raza homepage - http://www.nclr.org/

Aztlan newsletter website - http://www.aztlan.net/

[Ignacio Upton]

32. I stand corrected about La Raza

nt.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[WilliamPitt]

12. La Raza = the people

Specifically, people of Hispanic origin.

[ugarte]

15. You got it right, The xenophobes here surprise me...

"Viva la Raza" is no more racist than an Italian-American or Irish-American parade.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

18. I was told...

La Raza = The Family, which usually means extended family of mexican decent. However, La Raza is also the name of a faction of the Mexican Mafia, so you have to pay attention to the context of the situation. :)

Viva La Raza usually means "Long live the People"

[Marie26]

20. Rough translation - up w/the people.

But the actual use is much more nuanced - it's an expression of solidarity & pride.

[Bridget Burke]

23. "El Dia de la Raza" is called "Columbus Day" in English.

In Latin America, the day is not so much a celebration as a commemoration of the bittersweet birth of the Latin American people.

According to Wikipedia, La Raza is an abbreviation of a phrase coined by the Mexican scholar José Vasconcelos. The original phrase was "La raza cosmica," meaning "the cosmic people" and referring to the Mexican people's unique mixed-blood status, being descended from Mexic-Amerindian, Spanish and other European, Arab, and African people. The term is meant inclusively, declaring that traditional concepts of race and nationality can be transcended in the name of humanity's common destiny.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_raza

The term has been heavily used in the fight for Mexican-American rights. Anyone here remember Cesar Chavez?

[Le Taz Hot]

25. Long live the people

but don't look for the expresssion in Mexico -- it's a Spanglish thing only used in the U.S.

[countryjake]

28. It means, "To Hell With Republican Bill HR4437!"

And any other plan to criminalize about 10 million working people!

[phusion]

31. damn right.

My uncle used to yell "Viva La Raza" out his car window up in Santa Fe...I know he would be in the streets today!

[Zen Democrat]

29. I've always heard that La Raza means The People. eom

[UTUSN]

30. The connotation is more like "blood" & "brother" as when African Americans

say it. That said, as soon as I saw the phrase "viva la raza" I knew it would lead to charges of racism against Hispanics as when BUSTAMANTE was smeared for the college groups he was a member of during Ahhhnuld's coup. The only reasons I'm not Alerting on this as flamebait is that several others have debunked the allegations of racism, and this needs to be met head on instead of locking it away.